Landscape; Shinnecock, Long Island (ca. 1896) by William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase’s *Landscape; Shinnecock, Long Island* captures the serene beauty of the coastal plains with a loose, impressionistic touch. Dappled sunlight spills across rolling hills, while patches of wild grass sway in an unseen breeze, their textures rendered in quick, energetic brushstrokes. The painting feels alive, almost breathing—a fleeting moment where land and sky dissolve into hazy harmony. Chase, who taught at the Shinnecock Hills Summer School, often painted en plein air, and this work reflects his fascination with light and atmosphere. There’s no grand drama here, just quiet reverence for the ordinary, transformed by his keen eye.

Subtle shifts in color—soft greens melting into golds, a sliver of distant water barely distinguishable from the sky—create a dreamlike quality. The composition feels spontaneous, yet deliberate, as if Chase chased the essence of the place rather than its strict details. Shadows dance unpredictably, suggesting the time of day is neither morning nor afternoon but some liminal in-between. It’s a painting that invites you to linger, to imagine the salt-tinged air and the crunch of dry grass underfoot. More than a landscape, it’s a mood, a whisper of Long Island before the modern world rushed in.